El Perú de 1968-1980

The open air auditorium ‘Khula Munch’ is located in Ratna Park (illustrated in Figure 6-2). Open air auditorium means ‘open theatre’, which is in a centrally located park in the heart of Kathmandu valley. This is a popular place for political parties to deliver public talks, and to organize mass meetings and cultural

programmes. A small, bell-shaped building, a cottage, a big garden and bushes and trees within the park attract people, making the area more crowded. This was a place where street children frequently appeared. The street children are attracted to the park because it offers shelter both in summer and in the rainy season; also it is a good place for resting, and entertainment is always available. The young people can use the bushes in the park to hide from hostile people and policemen.

This place is like an open market as shown in the figure (Figure 6-2). Small tea rooms sell tea, bread, cakes and alcohol; footpath shops sell cheap clothing and accessories; street vendors sell water bottles, ground nuts and seasonal fruits;

drivers and conductors wash their vehicles, and porters and other visitors commonly gather in the park. People are entertained by magicians and attracted by fortune tellers, who tell fortunes by palm-reading. It is a general place for people to spend time by chatting, resting and napping on the ground.The park is overcrowded and polluted. I found the place very busy, noisy, dirty and dusty; it was particularly intense in hot weather. I used a handkerchief when I was in the area to protect myself from dust, as I am allergic to it.

In the rainy season there are puddles everywhere and it is muddy and difficult to walk. The park is littered. The ground seems a convenient location for visitors to

165 urinate and defecate, making the area smell unpleasant. Often I took out a

handkerchief from my bag to cover my nose to avoid the unpleasant smell. People gazed at me after I had visited the park several times, and a number of people asked me why I was there. A man who was sitting on the grass said: “You should be careful in this area; people of all types and behaviour come here: frauds, liars, alcoholics and thieves gather here. You should not trust people here.” A lady from the tea shop in the park said: “People might think you are a prostitute if you come to this area; good people don’t come here, only frauds and liars. Here all people are like that; this is that kind of place. You can see many girls here in the late afternoon; maybe they have gone to lunch now.” It seemed the place was a hub for finding both prostitutes and clients.

Figure 6-2 Illustration of areas surrounding the Ratna Park research site (Source: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/5908216 )

166 6.4.2 Thamel

Thamel is a tourist district also known as an entertainment centre of Kathmandu.

Thamel is a very busy area (illustrated in Figure 6-3); the place has many guest houses, hotels, restaurants, lodge bars and numerous shopping centres, as well as travel and trekking agencies, and offices. There are nude dance bars, massage parlours and cabin restaurants at every street corner. Shops, cafés and restaurants are lined up in the entire Thamel area. This part of the city is popular for finding handicrafts, paintings and antiques.

Figure 6-3 Illustration of areas surrounding the Thamel research site (Source: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/5908216 )

Because it is a tourist area, there are good shops and services here, and the place is made more crowded because of small shops and tea rooms on the footpath. The area is very busy with people from all walks of life: backpackers, potters,

mountain trekkers and street vendors are commonly seen in the streets. Although the sex trade is illegal in the country, I learnt that prostitution was common in hotels, restaurants, dance bars, lodges and massage parlours in Thamel. A street boy said: “We can see prostitutes, ‘^bhalu’, commonly in this area at night; a man

167 comes to pick up a girl from the street and then goes.” He added: “It is very easy;

just asking ‘Do you go?’ is enough. If you have a desire to have sex you can get a girl of your choice from a lodge or a guest house in this area.’’ Another street boy said: “Homosexuals, ‘chakka’, walk in a group at night and they pull pedestrians from the roadside to have sex. This place is lively at night.”

6.4.3 Pashupati temple area

The Pashupati area is an ancient holy site for Hindus. People from all around the country visit the temple for various rituals. Pashupati area covers a large space containing hundreds of temples of varying sizes with hidden nooks and crannies (illustrated in Figure 6-4). The Bagmati River flows near the Pashupati temple as shown in the figure. The river water is heavily polluted due to the disposal of public waste draining directly into it. The riverside is used for cultural and ritual activities. A number of stone platforms have been built in the river bed and are used for cremations. I heard a street girl yelling at her friends to go to the river.

She yelled: “Ooh come! Let’s go down to the river.” I asked the street boys why they went to the river. They replied: “The girls go to trawl coins and valuables;

sometimes coins and jewellery fall off the cremated bodies.” I saw children immersed in the river to collect firewood that was pushed into the water after the cremations.

They were also busy fishing in the river. Street children were also eagerly searching for devotees’ offerings such as money, fruit, and sweets in the piles of waste from the temple. Monkeys, dogs and cows freely roam around the area searching for food in the scattered waste. Sometimes the street children earn money by guarding leather accessories and shoes which are not allowed to be taken into the temple. The place is also convenient for begging and pickpocketing.

In one festival, I saw a street boy guarding the shoes of devotees. The boy said: “I am doing this today because thousands of people visit the temple for this festival, so I can make some money from this work; this place is better for begging

168 because religious people visit the temple, so some people give us money, and in some festivals pickpocketing is also easy when millions of people gather.”

Figure 6-4 Illustration of areas surrounding the Pashupati research site (Source:http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/5908216)